Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has said he has paused Michigan's plans to settle more Syrian refugees in Michigan, asking the federal government to review its vetting process of refugees.(Photo: Romain Blanquart, Detroit Free Press)

LANSING — Gov. Rick Snyder is sticking to his decision not to encourage resettlement of refugees in Michigan until vetting procedures are further scrutinized and, in a letter to federal officials, called on the Obama administration to continue talks to address concerns raised by governors across the nation.

Snyder's office released on Tuesday a copy of the letter, written a week ago, to Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, asking that the administration involve the 10-member Council of Governors — an advisory board that Snyder belongs to — as well as state police agencies and homeland security experts to discuss questions regarding the safety of the refugee resettlement program.

"With these experts in the room, I am confident that we can engage in a deep dialogue on the effectiveness of the vetting process," Snyder wrote. "Further, I would like to expand the discussion to include enhanced communication between federal, state, and local government officials to ensure the public is well informed about the fidelity of the screening process for all individuals who wish to come to America."

Speaking to the Free Press on Tuesday, an Obama administration official said the White House will look to include discussions about refugee resettlement issues at a future Council of Governors meeting as part of ongoing talks with state officials, though it was not immediately clear when that would take place.

Snyder was the first of more than two dozen governors to raise questions about the security of the nation's refugee resettlement program in the wake of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks in which more than 130 people were killed. While Snyder said only that he would suspend his own efforts to attract refugees to the state until the program was reviewed, several other governors urged the Obama administration not to resettle any Syrian or Iraqi refugees for a time, fearing that potential terrorists could use the program to infiltrate the U.S.

Michigan has received thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees from fighting in those war-torn countries in recent years, more than all but one or two other states in the nation and would be expected to receive more, with the Obama administration saying it intends to continue efforts to accept refugees.

President Barack Obama and his advisers, meanwhile, have pointedly noted that the screening process for refugees — the majority of those from Syria have been women and children — takes years and includes several interviews and vetting against security databases, making it the most robust of any process for letting people into the country.

On Monday, the White House offered Snyder and other governors more access to information about refugees resettled in their states but made no mention of demands made by several that Syrian refugee resettlements be suspended after the Nov. 13 attacks for which ISIS, otherwise known as ISIL or the Islamic State, took credit.

In a letter obtained by the Free Press, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough proposed to Snyder and 33 other governors who participated in a call with him the week after the Paris attacks that the nation’s governors could, if they wished, get updates — including monthly, if they chose — on how many refugees are resettled in their states, as well as the nationalities, age ranges and genders of the refugees.

The information would be provided only after the refugees are resettled in a state, however, and would not include specific identifying information about them, underscoring not only Obama’s insistence that the refugee resettlement program continue at full speed despite efforts to slow it down but also the scant role governors have in determining where refugees live in the U.S.

“This proposal responds to the governors’ input while protecting the privacy of refugee families,” McDonough said in the letter, which also mentioned the likelihood of future talks between the Obama administration and the governors about the refugee vetting process.

Snyder's letter, which was released Tuesday morning, was not intended as a response to McDonough's proposal but, coming when it did, indicated that the governor's office isn't yet satisfied that enough has been done to address security concerns raised by him and others about the resettlement program.

In his letter to Kerry and Johnson, Snyder said he appreciated the "clarification of the security vetting process" and accepted that it was both "extensive and rigorous" but said he still believed concerns being raised about security needed to be put to rest.

Although he didn't mention it in the letter, some federal officials, including Johnson and FBI Director James Comey, have noted that there are challenges in vetting the background of some Middle Eastern refugees if they have never come in contact with law enforcement before and are from countries like Syria that don't share information with the U.S. Obama administration officials, on the other hand, have noted that there are still ways to vet refugees through personal interviews and matching their stories with other sources of information.

Snyder suggested the administration continue to discuss the topic with the Council of Governors at its meeting early this month.

The council is a 10-member group intended, according to a description on the National Governors Association website, "to serve as a mechanism for governors and key federal officials to address matters pertaining to the National Guard, homeland defense and defense support to civil authorities." It was not immediately clear when the council was meeting.

Michigan has been the arrival state for more Syrians and Iraqis than almost any other state in the nation since the beginning of 2013. The most recent State Department data available indicates of the 2,225 Syrians resettled in the U.S., 211 came to Michigan, trailing only California (243) and Texas (236). In terms of Iraqi refugees, only California, with 7,602, has received more than Michigan’s 6,660.

Contact Todd Spangler at 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.